Solid batteries: would they finally be ready?

It is both the quest for the Grail and a sea serpent for builders and public authorities. So-called solid batteries, with doubled autonomy and reduced pollution compared to our good old lithium-ion cells, everyone wants them, everyone is looking for them and, for the moment, everyone is returned empty-handed. But now, in the myriad of tech start-ups trying to hit the jackpot of the coming decade, the famous “dry” cells, their other little name, one of them breaks loose and comes out of the woodwork.

A final test carried out before the end of the year

SolidPower, a Colorado company says that’s it, that its system is ready and that it just needs to be validated by car manufacturers. Ford et BMW, who participated last year in a funding round so that the start-up might raise the 130 million dollars necessary for this development, are in favor. By the end of the year, the two brands will test and retest SolidPower batteries, just to see if they keep their promises.

And those promises are pretty huge. The cells in question will not only double the autonomy of electric cars, and SolidPower plans to reach 800 km without complex. But in addition, the Colorado batteries no longer heat up, can withstand extreme recharges and do not risk starting fires. The icing on the watt cake: they do not degrade at low temperatures and, winter and summer, they will have the same excellent performance.

Dry batteries, like the current ones, will be able to be implanted in the floor of cars and manufactured on the same gigafactory lines as lithium-ion batteries

It’s almost too good to believe since, thanks to this new technology, electric cars would be as good as thermal cars, or even better, since they do not pollute in use, and their manufacture would be less messy. and less water user.

A race in which the entire automotive industry is engaged

A sweet dream or a near future? Most builders lean more towards the second solution, and have put money on the table to achieve it. While Ford and BMW, but also Hyundai teamed up with SolidPower, Volkswagen preferred QuantumScape, another specialist. Of Stellaris at Mercedes by the way Toyota and all Chinese manufacturers, everyone is looking for their battery, by financing external research or carrying it out internally.

Still, the announcement of SolidPower might well shake up a pre-established schedule in which the new batteries were to be usable, according to BMW leaders, only around 2030. The new developments of recent days might well make them operational as early as 2025.